Winnipeg City Transit/Rapid Transit - Page 308

Cyro · #**6141** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 8:43 PM**

From the article:

Quote:

The ambitious nature of the project is what led the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to offer Marquess a $14.7-million loan, with $10 million of that sum guaranteed by the City of Winnipeg.

biguc · #**6142** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 9:15 PM**

Marquess takes forever to do anything. The city is studded with derelict buildings he's been haphazardly renovating into the ground for ten years now. I also haven't seen any marketing for his TOD. If he'd shell out for a few billboards his units may sell better, but that would be a lot to ask of a guy who started renovating a building on Hargraves years ago only to give up and start demolishing it six months ago, and only the front quarter of it is actually demolished. Marquess is useless.

cllew · #**6143** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 9:33 PM**

How much traction is Mike Holmes getting with his "the Yards at Ft. Rouge" project? Have not really heard too much about that either. http://fortrougeyards.com/

cllew · #**6144** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 9:39 PM**

On a transit related note it appears that Winnipeg Transit has has once again ranked as a top Canadian Transit agency according to a Nov 14/14 news release from the City of Winnipeg.

http://winnipeg.ca/cao/media/news/nr...20141114.stm#1

In that new release there is a link to a study by Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative ( http://www.ombi.ca/resources/?did=218) saying that Winnipeg Transit is a very efficient service among other things.

Simplicity · #**6145** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 9:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyro

^ Over saturation of the market?

Condo market is flooded. Inventories are greater than they've ever been. Scary part is that there are 900 units in this development and they've sold 23. I don't know what that means for the future of this development, but I get the sense we're going to see some alterations to the plan if it continues at this rate.

Simplicity · #**6146** Posted **Nov 15, 2014, 9:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by biguc

I was under the impression we were financing him.

The city is backstopping his loan from the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. $10MM of it, anyway; the total loan was $14.9MM. The article mentions that none of this money has flowed to Marquess, though. It's possible it's conditional upon an equitable investment from GEM. As in, they'll get the $14.9MM as soon as they're into it for $14.9MM - or some other amount - of their own capital. Conditions like that are pretty common in development finance: The lender wants to see a certain portion of equity up front and conditions their advance on proof that borrower equity has been spent first.

rrskylar · #**6147** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 4:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by biguc

Marquess takes forever to do anything. The city is studded with derelict buildings he's been haphazardly renovating into the ground for ten years now. I also haven't seen any marketing for his TOD. If he'd shell out for a few billboards his units may sell better, but that would be a lot to ask of a guy who started renovating a building on Hargraves years ago only to give up and start demolishing it six months ago, and only the front quarter of it is actually demolished. Marquess is useless.

But Katz and Sheegl thought so highly of him!

trueviking · #**6148** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 7:35 AM**

GEM is into it for more than $14m already. All the roads, landscaping, geothermal etc is all complete. It looks like a community without buildings.

Marketing will ramp up once they have completed the station. Larger buildings will start in the spring.

This article was just Kives' passive aggression. He was all bent out of shape over Bowman saying he wants 6 lines of rapid transit built. This is his way of telling everyone he's right.

It's been slow but it will happen. People just need to be patient. This is winnipeg.

Simplicity · #**6149** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 8:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

GEM is into it for more than $14m already. All the roads, landscaping, geothermal etc is all complete. It looks like a community without buildings.

Marketing will ramp up once they have completed the station. Larger buildings will start in the spring.

This article was just Kives' passive aggression. He was all bent out of shape over Bowman saying he wants 6 lines of rapid transit built. This is his way of telling everyone he's right.

It's been slow but it will happen. People just need to be patient. This is winnipeg.

I'm not skeptical about Marquess' willingness to invest and see this through as much as I'm skeptical about the market's willingness to absorb it. Frankly, those sales numbers are abysmal given the time frame and there's no dressing that up.

But these articles aren't helping.

EastK · #**6150** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 4:47 PM**

Has anyone here seen the other development Marquess was a part of on Mcphillips? It has taken more than 6 years to complete and there is still a lot of work going on with regards to 2 buildings and the landscaping which is not finished. I feel bad for the people who purchased one of those condos too. Everything in them seems as if it was finished on a really low budget. I can't believe the city would trust this clown to handle such a large development.

bomberjet · #**6151** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 4:56 PM**

On that one he pulled an illegal on a green space req. He didn't build a park he was supposed to IIRC. I think the city came to some agreement, but basically let him get away with it. I think he built the park after the fact at a location off his site. I'll see if I can find the article.

bomberjet · #**6152** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 5:23 PM**

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...park-1.2568573

So he did get a $170k fine.

1ajs · #**6153** Posted **Nov 16, 2014, 6:09 PM**

didnt the mcphillips project get sold to someone els

trueviking · #**6154** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 4:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simplicity

I'm not skeptical about Marquess' willingness to invest and see this through as much as I'm skeptical about the market's willingness to absorb it. Frankly, those sales numbers are abysmal given the time frame and there's no dressing that up.

But these articles aren't helping.

yeah, its likely it will be a mix of condo and rental in the short term at least.

the first building was a bit misguided I think...the units were all three bedroom, 1500 square foot type places. That will certainly change as they move forward.

The marketing has also been extremely light, for whatever reason. Now that all the infrastructure is in and the transit station is built it will be interesting to see how aggressive they become. They need to be selling the entire development, not just individual buildings. Lifestyle marketing.

Once they get a couple buildings up the negativity will fade away, but they need to get to that point.

Simplicity · #**6155** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 4:47 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trueviking

yeah, its likely it will be a mix of condo and rental in the short term at least.

the first building was a bit misguided I think...the units were all three bedroom, 1500 square foot type places. That will certainly change as they move forward.

The marketing has also been extremely light, for whatever reason. Now that all the infrastructure is in and the transit station is built it will be interesting to see how aggressive they become. They need to be selling the entire development, not just individual buildings. Lifestyle marketing.

Once they get a couple buildings up the negativity will fade away, but they need to get to that point.

Yeah, there's no doubt the plan changes. I'll be curious to see where it ends up. Most concerning to me is that we're depending upon all the TOD from one developer. With the exception of that Streetside Project, if Marquess takes fifteen years to finish up in Ft. Rouge, we're gonna have a BRT line to nowhere and servicing nobody running through the Parker Lands.

We'll see what happens. These units are actually a bargain comparatively speaking, so I'm not even sure what's driving the lack of interest. I've seen condo units go up in a field in other developments that have had no problem selling which makes it more difficult to comprehend; people don't seem to mind being first in in suburban developments. Maybe it's the rail yard? That's a pretty active line and it gets pretty noisy with all the brake screech and car coupling...

trueviking · #**6156** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 5:47 AM**

yeah, they are really cheap...for the size you get. I have no idea how they made those numbers work...

I agree with a lot of eggs being in one basket.

drew · #**6157** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 3:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by biguc

Marquess takes forever to do anything. The city is studded with derelict buildings he's been haphazardly renovating into the ground for ten years now. I also haven't seen any marketing for his TOD. If he'd shell out for a few billboards his units may sell better, but that would be a lot to ask of a guy who started renovating a building on Hargraves years ago only to give up and start demolishing it six months ago, and only the front quarter of it is actually demolished. Marquess is useless.

A developer will need extra time to finish anything if he needs to wait to build new bridges before he can keep burning them down.

I have no idea which consultants are willing to keep working for him, but part of the reason he takes so long, is because he refuses to pay anyone to do the work.

44 Hargrave had the first third of the building demolished, and last I heard, it was to get rebuilt, so they can finish the building. That project is a complete clusterf**k. Although in Marquess' defense, only partially his fault. Some serious foundation issues there.

The Unknown Poster · #**6158** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 3:36 PM**

How does anyone take Kives seriously. he's one of those "journalists" that doesnt want to sit back and report the news, he wants to make the news. And he knows negative sells so everything is negative.

The Mayoral debate, he had the first question and just looked so angry.

I remember when he was all over the Stadium transportation plan. Following a football game he re-tweeted every negative tweet and went on about how awful it was. Funny how he never re-tweeted any of the positive tweets of which there were many. Just an angry jerk.

I think he's also the little guy that wanted to fight Marty Gold during the Pork Gate fiasco lol

Simplicity · #**6159** Posted **Nov 17, 2014, 5:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew

A developer will need extra time to finish anything if he needs to wait to build new bridges before he can keep burning them down.

I have no idea which consultants are willing to keep working for him, but part of the reason he takes so long, is because he refuses to pay anyone to do the work.

44 Hargrave had the first third of the building demolished, and last I heard, it was to get rebuilt, so they can finish the building. That project is a complete clusterf**k. Although in Marquess' defense, only partially his fault. Some serious foundation issues there.

Yeah, here's the other wildcard in this whole development. I don't think Marquess has ever been able to complete anything without having the project lien'd in some capacity - normally for non-payment. And it's really run the gamut: consultants, contractors, hydro, etc. He doesn't discriminate. This guy absolutely hates cutting cheques...

Cyro · #**6160** Posted **Nov 20, 2014, 5:25 PM**

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